THE project which found work for only 10 people out of 1520 has been given a damning assessment by the Commons Public Accounts committee.

JUST 10 people in Scotland who were on incapacity benefit have found jobs after being placed on the Government’s back-to-work scheme.

The figure came to light a week after the welfare to work programme was condemned as useless by a Commons committee.

The multi-billion-pound scheme aimed at helping the long-term unemployed into work was branded “extremely poor” in a damning assessment by MPs on the Commons public accounts committee last week.

But details of just how badly the programme masterminded by Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is failing disabled people have now emerged.

In Scotland, 1520 former incapacity benefit claimants went through the scheme and only 10 – or 0.39 per cent – completed six months in work.

The statistics were uncovered following detailed parliamentary questions from Scots Labour MP Tom Greatrex, who campaigns on working rights for disabled people.

The figures are no better for the rest of the United Kingdom.

Of 15,000 former incapacity benefit claimants who went through the Work Programme in Britain, only 60 found jobs lasting six months or more – which works out at 0.4 per cent.

Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP Greatrex said: “When a welfare to work programme only finds a handful of former benefit claimants a new job, it is fair to say that it has been a massive failure.

“Tory-Liberal ministers talk a lot about getting people off benefits and into work but these figures show this is just a lot of hot air.

“At a time when millions are unemployed and David Cameron is giving a tax cut to the richest in society, we desperately need a back-to-work programme that is fit for purpose.”

The scheme was set up in June 2011 with the aim of helping the long-term unemployed move off benefits and into employment.

The Government said they were prepared to pay up to £14,000 per case and up to £5billion over five years to help people into work.

But there was concern in Scotland when it was revealed that leading social enterprises, such as the Wise Group, had missed out on contracts in favour of private companies.

In Scotland, the two providers are private firms Working Links and Inges Deloitte.

Work Programme providers are paid on performance – dependent on workers staying in their jobs for three or six months – with only a small fee paid up front.

According to the committee, not one of the 18 providers have met their contractual targets and their performance “varies wildly’’.

SNP MSP Linda Fabiani also took the Tories to task over the failure. She said: “These are absolutely appalling figures, showing that the Westminster system is completely failing the most vulnerable people in Scotland.

“Unpaid work experience is not in itself a bad thing – a well-designed, short-term placement can give valuable skills and experience to boost someone’s chances in the jobs market – but this is just not happening.”

The scheme was also blasted by the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations.

Their director of public affairs John Downie said: “This is yet more proof of something we have known for a long time – the Work Programme isn’t working.

“In fact, it traps people in a system that actually reduces the number of jobs being created and ignores people with the most complex needs, moving them even further from the employment market in the process. The only thing it achieves is helping private companies to make millions on the back of the misery of worklessness because they’re failing to get people into jobs.”

But Government officials pointed out that the figures only include people who have been in work for at least six months and people who have entered work through the programme have not yet reached that point.

A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: “The Work Programme is designed to support the long-term unemployed – some of the hardest to help – to get off benefits and into work.

"The Work Programme offers two years of personalised support and most people haven’t even been on it for a year yet, so it’s early days, but already more than 200,000 have been helped into a job.”

The welfare to work scheme was mired in controversy last month when it emerged Triage, a firm helping to deliver the project, referred to disabled clients as “lying, thieving b******s”.

Staff at the company’s Aberdeen branch claimed it was common corporate culture to call vulnerable clients “LTBs” – a code for the sickening insult.

Are you one of the 10 who got a job? Email us at reporters@dailyrecord.co.uk or call us on 0141 309 3251.